Carols
by sea.song.26
Summary: It's Christmas aboard the Enterprise. The boys are clueless, as usual, Nyota's playing matchmaker, Scotty's still got some alcohol, and hilarity is sure to ensue. Will eventually end up being Kirk/Spock and Sulu/Chekov. Rated for language.
1. An Idea

The bridge of the Enterprise was unusually quiet. This was in all likelihood because Nyota was the only one left on it awake.

They were orbiting a small planet, waiting for the landing party (which consisted of Spock, Chekov, and a red shirt whose name Nyota didn't know) to return. And Captain Kirk had fallen asleep.

Not that she was surprised. Jim had refused sleep since the landing party had touched down… making that a day and a half he'd stayed up. Even for Jim, that was pretty impressive, considering he'd been fully functioning until about half an hour ago.

"Lieutenant Uhura?" The clear male voice that Nyota instantly recognized as Spock's came over the communicator.

"I'm here," said Nyota.

"Please inform Mr. Scott to prepare for transport in approximately seven minutes."

"Right," said Nyota. "Will do." She called Scotty and let him know.

"Aye aye, ma'am, right away!" he said cheerfully.

In his sleep, Jim Kirk mumbled something semi-incoherent about Spock and unicorns.

Nyota had to cover her mouth with one hand to keep from bursting out into laughter. She didn't even think that she wanted to know–

Oh. Well, that was interesting, wasn't it. Somebody… she glanced over at the still-sleeping captain… was having a dream about his first officer. Well, that certainly _was_ interesting…

It wasn't as if she hadn't seen the looks they sent at each other when the other one wasn't looking. In fact, Nyota suspected that the captain had been the final wrench thrown in her already-failing relationship with Spock.

Despite popular belief, Nyota wasn't bitter at all about the breakup. She'd known it was coming, and in fact, when it had come, it had been a bit of a relief. Sure, she'd been attracted to him, but as time wore on, the spark they'd had faded, he became more distant, and she'd realized that there was no love between them, save for that of good friends. Which they still were.

Besides, being single was a hell of a lot more fun.

So, Jim was having dreams about Spock, was he? Nyota shook her head despairingly. Boys were boys, which meant that they would be clueless idiots from time to time. It amused her that two men as intelligent as Jim and Spock could be so _stupid_ at times.

And, quite frankly, she was getting fed up with them both acting like angsty, lovesick puppies. Everybody (oh, she wasn't the only one to have noticed this!) was.

And then, suddenly, she had an idea. It was a very good idea, if slightly vague around the details, and she thought that she had just the plan to go with it.

She smiled, a slightly mischievous smile to herself, and then Lieutenant Nyota Uhura began to formulate a plan.


	2. A Plan, Of Sorts

A/N: Thanks to everyone who favorited or put this on Alert! But reviews would be appreciated. And, um, for the record, I fail at writing the Russian accent. Pretend it's there :)

Nyota began the execution of her plan the next day. This part, at least, was relatively simple. Objective: convince Jim to have a Christmas party for the crew. It was ridiculously easy to convince Jim to do fun things, so Nyota wasn't expecting any trouble at all from that end.

The plan itself was relatively simple. Put Jim and Spock in a situation where they really couldn't avoid each other (preferably, a small confined space). Get thme both ridiculously drunk so they confess their love for each other. She was pretty sure that they wouldn't do it while sober. Not yet, at any rate.

There were, however, two problems with this plan. One was finding a place to keep them near each other. She was considering "accidentally" locking them in a supply closet.

The other problem, of course, was Spock. First of all, there was his thing about expressing his emotions. Obviously, that kind of put a knot in the whole plan. She'd been hoping the copious amounts of alcohol would help remedy that, but... well, that brought her to her second problem regarding Spock. She wasn't actually sure Vulcans _could_ get drunk. Even half-Vulcans.

Well, although it still needed some work, she was still confident that she could find a way to make it work.

As expected, Jim enthusiastically agreed to the Christmas party and put her in charge of planning it.

Nyota was beginning to realize that this plan was going to be quite difficult to put into action if the rest of the crew was still in the dark, so she called a meeting of the bridge crew and sent Sulu off to distract Spock and Jim with something in the botany lab before he ran back to see what she had to say.

She explained the plan, which met with general approval. "All right, but I can't do this without you guys," she said. "So are you in?"

"I will do my wery best to help," Chekov declared.

"Aye, you can count me in," said Scotty.

Sulu shrugged. "Why not?"

"Oh, all right," growled Bones. "God knows we're all tired enough of them pining after each other like this."

Nyota grinned. "Excellent. Now... Scotty, I'm putting you in charge of finding large quantities of alcohol. I'm sure you'll have no trouble with it. Hikaru, find us some mistletoe. The more, the better. Pavel and Bones, you guys find someplace we can 'accidentally' trap them together. Okay?"

There was a general nod.

"And what will you be doing?" Bones inquired.

Nyota smiled again. "I, Dr. McCoy, will be planning the party."


	3. Definitely Not

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited, put this on alert, or any combination thereof! I'll apologize for two things first off: first, I'm terrible at replying to reviews. So please don't expect me to. If something needs a reply, I shall include it in my author's note. Second, my updating will be slightly erratic. This is because my parents don't know I do this and would NOT approve if they did, but that's not enough to make me stop doing it, so... I have to be REALLY careful about being on here. So, yeah. Oh, and hopefully that bit at the end with Pavel's accent wasn't too stupid. :) Now I shall stop rambling on and get back to the story, shall I?

Captain Jim Kirk was feeling depressed.

It wasn't just the holiday season, although lord knew that in itself was quite enough. He wished, silly as it was, that he was in Iowa with his family, spending Christmas where he felt Christmas should be spent.

But it wasn't just that.

It was this _feeling_. That... sort of warm, fuzzy, complete happiness and contentment he felt whenever he looked at his first officer.

He definitely wasn't used to that.

Out loud, to himself, he said, "I am _not_ in love with Spock. Definitely not. I like girls. Spock is not a girl. I am definitely, _definitely_ not in love with Spock."

"Well, if you're so sure about that," said an amused female voice. Jim jumped and looked around. Nyota was leaning against the wall, a handheld device of some sort in one hand.

In the midst of his fierce denial to himself, he'd completely forgotten that he was walking down a hallway where anyone could hear him. Well, shit.

"Hello, Lieutenant," he said, attempting to salvage what he could of his dignity.

"I'm off duty, Captain. It's Nyota," she said with a smile. As the five-year mission had started to wear on, she'd started letting him call her Nyota. When she was off-duty, of course.

"Um. Right."

"Why are you bothering denying to yourself?" she asked, raising one eyebrow. "Jim, it's pretty obvious to myself and just about everyone else... well, except Spock... that you're completely head over heels for him. Just admit already, will you?" She rolled her eyes.

"I told you, I'm NOT in love with him!"

"You seem awfully defensive about that, you know," she remarked. "You're good at many things, Jim, but acting does not seem to be one of them."

"My acting talent, Lieutenant," Jim retorted, "is only my own business." Figuring out that the only way he could even keep any semblance of his usual cool confidence, he strode away, leaving Nyota hiding her smile behind him.

How _had_ she figured that out? Jim wondered. It was a little bit scary, really. He wasn't used to people being able to read him.

Then again... maybe she was right. Maybe he was being a little too obvious about it, even though he'd done all he could to hide it. Including, apparently, denying it to himself.

All right, Jim, he told himself. You can do this. No big deal. You've told plenty of girls that you love them.

_But you never meant it_, said the irritating little voice in the back of his consciousness.

Oh, shut up, he told it. And he wasn't even going to tell _Spock_ that he loved him. He was just going to admit it to himself.

"Okay," he said, taking a deep breath. "Okay." He glanced quickly around the deserted hallway. Seeing no one there, he said, "Okay. I am in love with Spock. There. I said it."

Then he glanced around again and set off running for the his quarters, where he could hide and put his dignity back together again.

Of course, he hadn't noticed Ensign Chekov and his video camera hiding in one of the air ducts. "I got it on wideotape!" Chekov said to Nyota via their communicators.

Nyota grinned and stifled a giggle.

"Excellent job, Pavel," she said. "Now I think all you need to do is work on pronouncing your V's the right way."

There was no response, although she could have sworn she heard him trying out the letter as she walked back towards the bridge.


	4. The SupplyCloset Hunt

A/N: Because I love you all to death for giving me feedback, here's to my awesome reviewers: freddyburn, circa divide, Disney Chicka, Ravenclaw Samurai, MirrorFlower and DarkWind, dragonwitch250, and . Hope that's everybody! Oh, and freddyburn, Scotty and alcohol shall be along presently. Hopefully in the next two chapters or so. :) You get two updates in one day! Isn't that exciting? Also, because I haven't actually done anything with my other pairing yet, this chapter is mostly Pavel-and-Hikaru-centric.

"Pavel!"

Ensign Chekov spun around, looking for the owner of the voice that had just called to him. Hikaru Sulu hurried across the bridge toward him.

"Good morning," Pavel said cheerfully. Hikaru grinned.

"Good morning to you, too. Guess what I managed to find on the last planet we visited?"

"Um... oh, I do not know, 'Karu! It is too early in the morning for me to think," Pavel admitted. Hikaru rolled his eyes.

"I'll give you a hint. It's got to do with Ny– oops, Lieutenant Uhura's– plan!"

"Mistletoe?" asked Pavel.

Hikaru grinned. "Yes indeed! I've got it growing in my quarters. How's the quest for a small space to trap Jim and Spock in going?"

"Not so good," Pavel admitted. "It is wery hard to find a suitably empty supply closet!"

Hikaru stifled a laugh. "Well, yeah. That's because they're supply closets, meant to hold supplies. Why don't we just go around and put up mistletoe in all of them we can find? That way no matter where they end up getting stuck, they have no way to avoid it!"

"That is a wery good idea!" said Pavel, almost bouncing up and down with childlike enthusiasm at the thought. "We could do that on our break, yes?"

"Yeah," said Hikaru, "that sounds like a plan to me."

Their shift both dragged on and went at warp speed at the same time. Hikaru wasn't entirely certain how that was possible, but today certainly seemed to be proving that it was. Finally–finally!– it ended, and the two set off on a supply-closet hunt, stopping quickly by Hikaru's quarters to retrieve the mistletoe.

Their hunt for suitably small spaces led them all over the ship; they hung up a small sprig of mistletoe in each one they came across, both semi-unconsciously making sure that they were never under it at the same time. Because, well, that would just be awkward.

Eventually, they ran out of supply closets and mistletoe. "All right, I think this is the last one," announced Hikaru as he carefully fastened the small sprig of greenery to the ceiling. "We're all out, and I think we've got the place pretty well-covered."

"I agree," said Pavel with a nod. "Definitely." Without paying attention, he stepped into the supply closet with Hikaru, looking at the writing on some box or another.

"Um," said Hikaru. "Um. Pavel?"

"Yes?"

"Er... we're under the mistletoe, Pavel," said Hikaru.

The Russian glanced up at the ceiling. "Well, would you look at zat. We are indeed."

"Pavel," began Hikaru, but was immediately shushed by the gentle touch of lips against his.

_Well, that was unexpected_, Hikaru reflected as he just as gently kissed the Russian back. _Who would have thought he'd do it first? You know, he really is a good kisser. Mmm..._ And from there his thoughts dissolved into pure happiness.

Eventually Pavel broke the kiss, leaving Hikaru slightly disappointed. And he'd been really enjoying that, too.

"I think," said Pavel, "that is an interesting tradition. Do you think that they have anything similar on Wulcan?"

Hikaru raised an eyebrow, trying to ignore the blush that had risen to his cheeks. "Can you _really_ not pronounce the letter V, Pavel?"

"I can," the Russian insisted, "it just does not sound right!"

Hikaru rolled his eyes, somehow failing to notice that his companion was also bright red. And he almost–but not quite–missed Pavel's quiet murmur of, "I think zat I like that tradition."

And he smiled. Perhaps, he mused, there was some flicker of hope after all.


	5. Say It

A/N: So... this was going to be two chapters... but it was too short. So it's one chapter. Spock makes his first appearance! Hope he's not too OOC. I'm very bad at writing him :)

The plan was progressing along quite well. Nyota was pretty much certain that she had everything she needed.

Except for one thing. Well, possibly two. She hadn't checked with Scotty about the alcohol yet.

So she called a meeting; she'd intended on getting Chekov to distract the captain and first officer, but as it turned out, that wasn't necessary. They were called away by somebody in Engineering... so the crew got together on the bridge.

"Okay," said Nyota. "Hikaru and Pavel put up the mistletoe in all the supply closets you could find, right?"

Hikaru noticed a slight blush rise in the Russian boy's cheeks. "Yes, we did," Pavel said.

"Excellent. And Pavel, you still have that videotape of Jim, right?"

"_Da_," said Pavel with a nod. "It is safe in my quarters."

"Okay. Scotty, managed to procure large amounts of alcohol yet?"

"Aye, indeed I did," said Scotty with a slightly wicked grin. "There'll be no shortage of _that_."

"In the interest of not having to report you to Starfleet, I won't ask how you managed that," said Nyota decisively. "All right. So we only need one thing. And this one's going to be the hardest to get."

"Um... what would that thing be, Nyota?" asked Hikaru, raising an eyebrow.

Nyota smiled. "The videotape of Spock confessing his love for Jim, of course."

There was some muttering along the lines of, "Yeah, that won't be easy," with something about the "damn emotionless green-blooded hobgoblin" from Bones.

"So I've got a plan about that, too," Nyota began.

Bones rolled his eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"

*

"Spock?"

The half-Vulcan commander turned around. "Good evening, Lieutenant Uhura."

"I'm off-duty," Nyota reminded him. "It's Nyota."

"I was not aware you wanted me to call you by your first name."

"Spock, please don't be an idiot. You're my _friend_. Just because we broke up doesn't mean that we aren't still _friends._" She checked the tiny video camera she had attached to the shoulder of her uniform to ensure it was on, trying to disguise it as adjusting it. If Spock noticed what she was actually doing, he made no comment about it.

"Listen, I actually wanted to talk to you about that. The break-up, I mean," she clarified.

"Nyota, if you are suggesting that we... get back together–"

"Are you _normally _this irritatingly clueless?" said Nyota, rolling her eyes. "No. I'm not suggesting that. I'm merely inquiring why you ended it. Curiosity finally got the better of me," she added with a grin.

"I think I made my reasons perfectly clear. I did not feel as if there was much real emotion left in the relationship, and therefore saw no reason for continuing it."

"Well, yes," said Nyota, "but, if you'll forgive me for saying so, you were pretty into it before we came onto the Enterprise. What happened?"

"Nothing," said Spock smoothly. "I merely–"

"Spock," said Nyota, shaking her head, "why are you attempting to lie to me? First of all, Vulcans don't lie. You've said that yourself on numerous occasions. Second, you know that I can see right through it. Look, I _know_ that there was someone else. I've even got a pretty good idea of who it was. But... I want to hear it from you. Go on, then."

"Lieutenant Uhura," said Spock, reverting back to his usual formality, "I do not think that this is the time or the place–"

"There's nobody here. Just say it. I think you'll feel better if you admit it to yourself. I _know_ that you like to pretend you don't feel at all, but I also know that you do. We're all tired you pining after him like... like a lovesick puppy! So just say it, all right?" She glared at him.

She was a little regretful that she had to make him irritated to actually get him to say it, but, well, that was Spock for you.

"Nyota, I..."

"You what, Spock?" challenged Nyota. "You can't do it? You can't admit that you have emotions? You can't admit that you _do_ feel, and that you _do_ love?"

"Nyota, that is completely false."

"So just go ahead and say it!"

Spock took a deep breath. And let it out again. "If you are truly so insistent, Nyota. I am in love with Captain Kirk. However, he does not know and I should like to keep it that way."

"Fair enough," said Nyota with a shrug. "Just between you and me. Also just between you and me, I think you should tell him. But, of course, it's up to you." She strode away, turning off the camera as she went.

Luckily, Pavel was there in the air duct again, and so he caught Spock's quiet sigh and murmur of, "If only I could, Nyota, if only I believed that I could."


	6. Good Times

A/N: It makes me happy that so many people like this ^^ This wasn't intended to be a story about Nyota, but somehow she appeared and kicked butt and became my main character, more or less. I'm glad that you all like her, too :)

"Captain?"

Jim spun around in his chair to look at Nyota. "Ah, Lieutenant Uhura. Yes?"

"Requesting permission to recruit Sulu, Chekov, Scotty, and Bones to help set up the party, sir," she explained.

"Bones is supposed to be in Sickbay..."

"I talked to him, sir. He said he'd be on call if necessary."

Jim thought about it. "Well... all right. I suppose. Where are you setting up?"

Nyota grinned. "Why, right here on the bridge, sir."

Jim rolled his eyes. "Somehow, I am not surprised. All right, then. I take it that this means the rest of us need to skedaddle?"

Nyota raised an eyebrow in a rather excellent impression of Spock. "Skedaddle, sir? Really?"

"Lieutenant Uhura, the making fun of your captain is unnecessary."

"Of course, sir. Now, I would appreciate it if you could, as you said, 'skedaddle'."

"All right then," said Jim. "Commander Spock, I do believe that they're throwing us out. Would you be up for a game of chess?"

"Certainly, sir," said Spock with a nod. "That would be most agreeable."

"Right then," decided Jim. "Off we go. Do let us know when it's time for the party, Lieutenant."

"We're off duty now," Nyota reminded him. "It's Nyota."

"Right, Nyota." With that, he marched grandly off the bridge, with Spock following him. Nyota rolled her eyes.

It only took a moment for Scotty and Bones to arrive, and soon they were all hanging up wreaths and streamers. Except for Scotty, who was setting up the drinks table. "Shall we pretend we don't see him sneaking shots of... whatever that is?" Hikaru whispered to Pavel.

"Yes," decided Pavel. "I think that we shall."

"All right," said Bones, "but I still don't know what you were planning on doing with those videotapes."

"Oh, those?" said Nyota. "Well... you'll find out, won't you?"

"Nice job keeping the suspense up," said Scotty, and no one was quite able to tell whether he was showing a dry sense of humor or actually sincere. No one asked, either.

"Nyota, do we have music?" inquired Pavel as he pinned a streamer to the ceiling.

"Music?"

"Yes, like Christmas carols," he said.

"No, I know what you meant. Um, I don't think so. Think you can find some?"

"That will be wery easy," said Pavel with a confident nod. "Leave it to me."

"Right. Okay. Carols. We will have Christmas carols! Speaking of... does anybody actually know any? Like, are there any that we all know?"

"Deck The Halls?" suggested Scotty. "Deck! The halls! With boughs! Of holly!" Clearly, he was a little tipsy already. Nyota resisted the temptation to roll her eyes.

"Fa la la la la, la la la la," added Pavel cheerfully.

"Tis the season to be jolly," sang Nyota with a grin.

"Fa la la la la, la la la la," Hikaru contributed, smiling.

Bones glared at them all, but went along with them. "Don we now our gay apparel," he sighed in his slightly raspy baritone.

"FA LA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA!" sang the other four happily. And then in unison, they all sang, "Tis the season to be jolly... fa la la la la, la la la la!"

And then they all collapsed laughing. "It's funny," said Scotty, "y'don't always remember the missions and everythin', but things like these, that's what you remember. Right?"

"Yeah," agreed Nyota with a grin. "Definitely. Always the good times."

"Good times, good times," wheezed Hikaru through his unquenchable chuckles. Pavel was too busy giggling to say anything, and Bones just rolled his eyes. But that was Bones, and besides, he was smiling.

"All right, you guys," said Nyota eventually. "We should probably finish up the decorating. Pavel, Hikaru? Would you guys happen to have some more mistletoe?"

"As a matter of fact, we would," said Hikaru with a slightly sheepish grin, producing a small ball of mistletoe from his pocket. "Where would you like it?"

Nyota grinned. "Right there in the center, if you would."

Hikaru went over to pin it up, but found that he couldn't reach the ceiling. "Hello? A little help here? Maybe a ladder or something?"

"I'll get it!" volunteered Pavel happily, picking his ladder up, moving it over, and putting up the small plant.

To Bones, Scotty observed, "They're under the mistletoe!"

Nyota tried to hide her grin. "What, playing matchmaker again?" asked Bones, raising one eyebrow.

"Of course not. Would I ever do such a thing?"

Meanwhile, Hikaru and Pavel had finally noticed that they happened to be stuck under the plant again. "It's deja vu all over again, isn't it?" said Hikaru as Pavel hopped off the ladder. "Well, this time at least, things can be a _little_ different..." And with that, he pulled the younger boy into a kiss. It was quite a good kiss, at that. Nyota was impressed. Scotty hid a smile.

And Bones, of course, just rolled his eyes, because that was what he did.

They only broke the kiss, as far as Nyota could tell, because they both needed to breathe. "So. Um. I. Um," was about as much as Hikaru could manage.

"Karu," said Pavel, "why are you bothering with words?" And with that, he kissed him again.

The rest of the bridge crew applauded. It was just one of those moments.

"Good times," said Nyota, "good times indeed."


End file.
